Practiced in the Dark Arts of Public Relations, they steer careers out of seemingly fatal nose dives and pull torched reputations from the ashes of public spectacle. They know that America frowns on sex scandals but smiles at redemption stories.

Now these crisis-management experts are watching what happens with San Diego Mayor Bob Filner as accusations of sexual harassment — and calls for his resignation — swirl around him.

So far, the fixers haven’t been impressed.

“If Filner’s problem was more conventional — medical, alcohol, financial — a forgiveness strategy might be feasible,” said consultant Eric Dezenhall. “The hardest thing to overcome, though, is ridicule, and that’s where this is going.”

Dezenhall is the co-author of “Damage Control: The Essential Lessons of Crisis Management,” one of a growing number of books devoted to the subject amid a steady stream of meltdowns by politicians, celebrities and even common folk who accidentally hit “send all” on a snarky office email.

He’s based in Washington D.C., also home to crisis queen Judy Smith, the inspiration for the main character on the ABC series “Scandal,” a political thriller full of intrigue and betrayal. Fixers like to operate in the shadows, but how shadowy can they be when their work is featured on network TV?

“People tend to see damage control in cinematic terms — Machiavellian spin doctors with great powers,” Dezenhall said. “This is fiction.”

The reality is far less glamorous. It’s tense meetings with people who are in trouble and maybe in denial — about what they’ve done, and about what needs to be done. Somebody has to point out when the emperor has no clothes.

In crisis management, the focus is on the managing, not the crisis. The crisis is already here. Sometimes managing it means finding a way to part the waters of scandal. Sometimes it means making sure everybody knows how to swim.

According to consultants, there is no set playbook for this kind of thing because every sin, every personality, every political situation is different. Sexual harassment allegations aren’t the same as visits with a prostitute or affairs between consulting adults.

But there are general guidelines, and almost everybody agrees with the mantra of Mike Sitrick, a famous Los Angeles fixer: “If you don’t tell your story, someone else will.”

First things first

Getting out in front of the news is crucial, fixers say. That enables you to drive the conversation, which is especially important in the always-on world of the Internet.

“Things can turn either which way in mere seconds on social media,” said Melissa Agnes, president of Melissa Agnes Crisis Management in Montreal. “One new angle, one new anything and all of a sudden it can spiral out of control.”

Two years ago, when former-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger learned the media was looking into reports he’d fathered a child with the family maid, he issued a press statement confirming it.

Late-night comics still told their jokes, but many of the early newspaper and Internet headlines used words like “Arnold admits” and that helped defuse the public clamor.

Filner was confronted with the harassment allegations in private meetings before a trio of then-supporters — former City Councilwoman Donna Frye and attorneys Marco Gonzalez and Cory Briggs — went public with demands that he resign. If he’d come forward first, he might have been able to steer the story into more favorable winds.

“You have to get on top of it yourself, apologize, disclose, face the music and round up supporters,” said Dennis Bailey, president of Savvy Inc., a PR firm in Maine, who regularly blogs about crisis-management. “He made a stab at it with his video, but he didn’t quite seal the deal.”

The video, released hours after Frye and the others held a press conference to outline the allegations, had a couple of fixer staples: an apology and a promise to do better. Filner acknowledged that he “failed to fully respect” women. “I need help,” he said. He talked about getting harassment-prevention training and bringing “fundamental changes” to his office.

“He has taken responsibility for his problem by admitting he has one,” said Shannon Wilkinson of Reputation Communications in New York. “That is a positive first step.”

But it wasn’t enough to keep the crisis from escalating. Bailey said he thinks that’s largely because Filner “seemed to be apologizing to the voters, not to the women. It looked like he wanted to get out in front of it, but he didn’t really want to admit that he did anything wrong.”

That may be because, as Filner said in a subsequent written statement, he doesn’t believe he’s guilty of sexual harassment. His accusers are unnamed. No formal complaints or lawsuits have been announced.

Bailey said it’s hard for people, especially powerful people, to admit they’re in trouble. They don’t always take his advice. He recalled one prominent lawyer, a married man, who came to him because he’d had an affair with a client, who was threatening to go public with a lawsuit unless he paid her a settlement.

“It’s very tough to go into that room and tell someone that the first thing he needs to do is go home and tell his wife, tell her it was just a fling and ask for her forgiveness, and then hold a news conference,” Bailey said.

The client said, “No way I can do that,” Bailey recalled. And Bailey told him, “Well, I can’t help you. There’s no way to kill this story.” And the fixer left.

The story never surfaced in the media. “I’m sure,” Bailey said, “that he paid a lot of money there.”

Mixed messages

Most crisis managers preach not just being quick and upfront, but consistent.

Filner’s strategy appeared to shift as the scandal rolled on, said Tom Gable, president and founder of Gable PR in San Diego.

The initial apology was an attempt “to control the message” by releasing the statement on DVD and avoiding follow-up questions with reporters, he said. Then, in the subsequent written statement and brief TV interviews, he was more defiant, talking about due process and vindication.

That kind of approach can backfire, Bailey said.

“One statement, then another — it looks like you’re not really being contrite, that you’re gaming it a bit, hoping the stink will go away,” he said. “More details will probably come out, and what will he say then? He can’t apologize twice. What’s he going to say, “OK, it was worse than I said the first time’? He’s made his stand. He can’t make another one. But he may have to.”

Gable said if the unnamed women come forward, “I would probably suggest consistent messaging out of the mayor’s office — that he will be proven right over time and looks forward to a full and thorough investigation.”

He would also propose what he called “The Big Fix,” a multipronged approach to regain trust and move the conversation forward. Part of it has already happened, he said — the hiring of former top county government administrator Walt Ekard to run the city’s day-to-day operations.

Filner also needs to follow-up on his pledge to get counseling, Gable said, and make changes in his office. He suggested Filner should report back monthly to the public on how it is going and appoint a community advisory board to guide him.

The message Filner needs to send, according to Gable: “I am committed to doing all I can to make this right.”

But Wilkinson, the New York consultant, said it’s too late for all that. The mayor’s reputation is already shot and will take years to recover, she said, especially on Twitter and Facebook, where “Filner dance” and “Filner headlock” have become running jokes.

“Until he steps down,” she said, “the crisis will escalate.”

Her suggestion: Resign immediately, lay low for a few months, then resurface with plans to establish a new foundation or help an existing one dedicated to preventing sexual harassment.

Support crucial

Public officials caught in sex scandals can survive if their political support doesn’t erode.

President Bill Clinton remained in office through the Monica Lewinsky affair in part because one of his fixers, Chris Lehane, was able to rally Democrats by painting the controversy as part of a right-wing political conspiracy to undermine the administration.

Lehane and his partner, Mark Fabiani, best known in San Diego as a consultant for the Chargers, went on to write a book called “Masters of Disaster: The Ten Commandments of Damage Control.” Among the commandments: “Full Disclosure,” “Details Matter” and “Hold Your Head High.”

When an elected official has lost key supporters — in Filner’s case, many prominent Democrats have abandoned him, as has his fiancée — resignation is a common outcome.

“It’s very hard to rebuild your house when you’re in the middle of a hurricane,” said Dezenhall, the D.C. consultant. “You can only defend yourself if you have a constituency.”

It did for Gavin Newsom. When he was mayor of San Francisco, he had an affair with his campaign manager’s wife. Almost immediately he gave a no-excuses public apology. He phoned civic leaders and asked for their understanding if not their forgiveness. He kept to his schedule of events, projecting normalcy.

Now he’s lieutenant governor, hardly the most glamorous spot in government, but one that leaves him poised for a run at higher office. The sex scandal is part of his résumé, but not the defining part.

Contrast that with Mark Sanford, the South Carolina governor who claimed to be hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2009 when he was really with his mistress in Argentina. He got caught, confessed, and in a string of rambling, confusing interviews called the mistress his “soul mate.” He said he’d try to save his marriage anyway. (His wife told him not to bother.)

“If there’s a manual for politicians on how to survive a sex scandal, (Sanford) has spit on it, torched it and spread the ashes somewhere along the coast of Myrtle Beach,” one pundit wrote. Another said, “He has to accept the fact that his political career is over.”

It wasn’t. Sanford weathered calls for his resignation and impeachment, served out his term, re-emerged later as a TV commentator, and earlier this year won back his old seat in the House of Representatives — with the mistress, now his fiancée, by his side.

Likewise, when New York Congressman Anthony Weiner resigned after he got caught sexting pictures of himself in 2011, many strategists thought it would be years, if not a decade, before he’d surface again.

He’s now a leading candidate for mayor of New York, running at the same time as Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor in 2008 after a prostitute scandal and is now campaigning for city comptroller.

“Good image and reputations are based on core values and behavior over time,” he said. “What do you stand for? It has to be based on facts and core values. You can’t spin it. It has to be authentic. If it isn’t, in the end you are going to be worse off.”